It’s easy to believe that the small business marketing is one of those things that you just need to get a checklist for. As long as you go through the check list, eventually, things will fall into place and small business marketing will work its magic.
I wish this were true. I wish that this is just a simple case of following a checklist and making sure that all your T’s are crossed and I’s are dotted and everything will fall into place as planned.
Unfortunately, for me to say that to you, I would be lying to your face. This is absolutely not true. In fact, this is the furthest thing from the truth. Small business marketing is not a one size fits all initiative. It has never been. It never will be that kind of activity because in this day and age, small businesses are always connected to the internet.
Small business marketing is not a one size fits all initiative.
I know that’s kind of a broad claim to make. But successful ones know what’s best for them and they better be connected to the internet so they can keep their finger on the pulse of their consumers. That way, they can capitalise on consumer trends as they break out. This way, they can remain on top of the competition.
Thanks to the internet, it has gotten really competitive at the local level when it comes to small businesses. That’s why they can not afford to ignore the internet as far as consumer intelligence goes.
Why consumer intelligence will make or break your business
Please understand that the days of old school retail or service providers is long gone. The Internet has completely changed how consumers deal with businesses and it also changed how consumers expect businesses to serve them. Fail to keep up with this changing perception and your business will not only fail to get new clients and customers, you will quickly become irrelevant to even your existing customer base. That’s right-people who have been doing business with you may well drop you like a bad habit if you can’t deliver on their needs in the here and now.
Consumer intelligence enables you to keep up with consumer trends and ever changing expectations. By always being up to date, you get to beat your competition and steal market share. Keep it up and you might soon be able to set market standards in your local area. This applies offline and can also have broad online implications.
Knowing this, you have to craft your small business marketing ideas and campaigns to zero in on the needs of each individual prospect. Back in the day, this was a very expensive proposition indeed. You’re basically forced to use templates. You basically have no other option but to use some sort of one size fits all cookie cutter approach for small business clients.
Well, not anymore. Thanks to the internet and LinkedIn and all sorts of social media accounts, you can slice and dice their local customer base. You can get all the information you need as far as background business realities are concerned in their area.
Using this information, you can then craft a customised pitch that makes sense to them. This is one of the best things that you can do to separate your brand and your business from your competitors. It’s obvious that you did your homework. It’s obvious that you really want to help them because you went the extra mile of understanding what the local business climate is and what the local business variables they need to attend to.
When they see that you have done your homework and that you present this information in a way that is tightly integrated with the value proposition you’re bringing to the table, you’re appreciated. I’m not making a bold claim here. This is the truth.
Why? You stand out from your competitors. You’re miles ahead of your competitors because they will just whip out a glossy catalog or send them some sort of PDF via email attachment and call it a day.
Well, nobody likes to be treated like a piece of chopped liver. Nobody wants to be looked at as just another addition to their bottom line. Everybody wants to be made to feel that they matter. Everybody wants to feel that they’ve been listened to.
And when you go the extra mile by getting all this digital information and mixing and matching them to customise some sort of unified cohesive experience for your customer, small business marketing goes from a simple saying to a reality people can experience.
That’s the level you should be operating in. Believe me, if you reach that level, you’re pretty much writing your own paycheque. You’re untouchable. Your competition will have no clue because you have used the power of the internet and a little bit of time to come up with your own spin to small business marketing that doesn’t make your prospects feel small, inconsequential, or essentially interchangeable.
Believe me, people pitch me all sorts of business products all day, every day. And I can tell them apart. I can smell them a mile away because they’re just going to hit me with one template after another.
But when somebody comes to my face and essentially reads my mind by telling me about my business realities and my confusion and my frustrations with my customer base, I sit up and pay attention.
I’m not alone. This is how your business customers think. So redefine small business marketing. Focus on tapping the depth of information available at your fingertips in the here and now so you can present an experience.
This is how you take things to the next level. This is how you beat your competition. If you’re able to keep this up and, most importantly, you’re able to institutionalise this in your business, you will be untouchable for the foreseeable future. The worst thing you can do is to think that you have it all figured out. The moment you think this way is the moment your business will slowly die.
